Clique Wars (Ninjago High School AU)
by firedancerforever
Summary: Kai, the new kid at school, is determined to make his way to the top of the food chain, though his sister Nya doesn't exactly approve. He soon gets to know Cole, a popular football player; Zane, the smart strange one; Jay, well known for his talkative nature; and Lloyd, nephew of the Japanese teacher. Rated T for some language and violence.
1. Chapter 1: Bullies, Brainiacs, Brand New

"A whole new world, Nya! Just think of all the possibilities!"

Nya rolled her eyes and followed her brother to the giant front double doors of their new school. "I still like our old school better. I knew people there."

"But we can start fresh here," Kai said, not taking his eyes off the doors. "We can be whatever we want to be."

"_I_ want to be myself. Why are you so obsessed with the change?"

His eyes widened as he reached for the handle. "Because at the old school we were on the bottom, treated like nothing. Here, we can be on the top and do whatever we want!"

"You keep saying _we_ like it's something we're both going to do. Sorry, Kai, but I'm not going to be part of your master plan to be on the top of the food chain."

"Aw, you're no fun," Kai said, finally glancing back at her with a mock pout on his lips. Nya rolled her eyes again with a little smile, but by the time she looked back at him he was staring at the doors again. "Only a few minutes until we start fresh."

"Until _you_ start fresh."

Kai wrapped his fingers around the handle. "Three, two…"

"You're being so dramatic about it," Nya said suddenly, grabbing the handle of the other door and yanking it open just as the ball rang and echoed through the tiled halls.

* * *

"Come on! Fight back, you nerd!" the boy taunted, punching a girl in the face just as she had gotten back up from the floor. "You're not even trying!" This time she stayed down, and the bully smirked and began to kick her instead. "Now you can't even get up!"

Then Jay saw her tears, and in his mind it was like in slow motion as they fell to the ground with each blow. And that was enough for him to step in and shove the bully away in an idiotic attempt at who-knows-what. "Back off! Can't you see she's had enough already?"

The bully backed up a few steps in surprise. "Well, well, well," he said as the dark grin came back. "Never thought I'd even see you stand up for yourself, let alone someone else."

Jay suddenly realized the guy was right. If he'd been in the girl's place, it would have taken until the bell rang for him to be safe. And even then he wouldn't say he was safe until he was home. Or maybe a hundred miles away from this place and never coming back again. _Make that a million miles_, he thought as the bully slowly took step after step toward him. _Say something!_ "Well…I just thought that…maybe…someone should actually stand up to you for once." It was hard not to slap himself in the face after saying that, because it sounded so hesitant and stupid. He started backing away.

"Really? And where did you think that would get you?"

Jay felt his back against the lockers. There were too many of this guy's football team friends to even try to get away. _I guess all that's left to do is wait for the bell. At least I won't have to slap myself in the face for being such an idiot. He'll do it for me._

Whenever there was a fight, Cole always made sure to find his way to the back of the group. He would sacrifice being late to class for a fight, but he sure as hell was not going to get expelled for it. Besides, it just wasn't right. He'd been trying to stop it, but lately he was getting the feeling that his efforts weren't working, so instead he'd been getting as far away as he could. The first target, the girl, was trying to fight her way into the circle to get to the boy who had defended her. Cole had seen the kid before, he just wasn't sure of the name.

There was someone down the hall that surprised him. Usually the halls were empty this close to the end of passing time. But as the person came closer, Cole thought he recognized him. He pushed his way back to the front of the group. "Teacher alert," he said loud enough for the leader to hear.

"Which one?" he growled, holding a bloody fist in the air as the other boy cowered against the lockers.

Cole winced, but tried to conceal it. "Sensei."

The bully's eyes went wide. "Shit, let's get out of here!"

The group scattered as the bell rang, but Cole took one last look down the hall to see the familiar teacher offering a hand to the beat up boy. When he noticed that the rest of the hall was entirely deserted, he tore himself away and hurried to class.

* * *

Zane tapped his pencil against the desk absentmindedly. This happened way too often, and the class was getting used to it, having a miniature party every time their teacher was gone. Why was he always late? And why did he always come back as if nothing had happened? It was a complete waste of time, and a missed opportunity to actually learn something. That was why people came to school, wasn't it? He sighed, silent to the rest of the class who were busy playing paper football or talking about the latest gossip in the corner or writing horrible things on the whiteboard. It was getting harder and harder to ignore them.

The door opened at last and the class went silent as they always did, hurrying to their seats as quietly as they could and trying to look like good students. "Good morning, class," Sensei Wu said as usual. Being the Japanese teacher, it was expected that maybe a few people might refer to him as Sensei, but this particular teacher was determined that everyone in the school, Japanese students or not, would refer to him by that title. And it had worked. Within the first year that he had begun teaching at this school, every student knew to call him Sensei. Or so they said.

No one else noticed, but Zane had a feeling that this was not such a good morning. Something didn't feel right. As soon as Sensei was fully within the classroom, he knew why. He jumped up from his seat and practically ran the few steps to the door. "Jay!"

His friend smiled weakly as he followed their teacher into the room. "You're drawing attention, Zane," Jay whispered.

"What happened?"

"The football team again. It was nothing."

"You're bleeding."

"Zane, I'm fine."

"But—"

"I'm fine." He gave another attempt at a smile before holding his already blood-stained sleeve up to his nose again and moving to sit at his desk.

Zane sat at his desk reluctantly, and just then noticed that he had clenched his hand into a fist. No, that wouldn't do. Two wrongs didn't make a right, he couldn't start a fight to end a fight. That wasn't how he was supposed to deal with this.

But they hurt people. Again. They weren't supposed to do that in the first place. Zane sighed and tried to forget about it, tried to tell himself that Jay was right and it really was no big deal. And yet every time he caught a glimpse of Jay at the desk next to him he was reminded that it was probably a bigger deal than he was making it out to be. He couldn't keep his eyes off the blood stain on his friend's sleeve, until he heard Sensei call his name, and he felt the eyes of every person in class staring at him.

"I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't hear the question."

Just as Sensei opened his mouth to repeat whatever it was that he had said, the door flew open and Zane let out a relieved sigh. A boy came through, wearing a fiery red coat and a confident smile. "Sorry I'm late," he said in a voice just as confident. "I got lost."

"That's perfectly fine. Take a seat," Sensei told him, motioning toward the empty desk near Zane.

* * *

"Hey, my name's Kai," he said again, hoping maybe this time the guy sitting next to him would respond. But he'd been completely absorbed in the worksheet ever since their teacher handed it out. Kai rolled his eyes and stared at the Japanese words on the paper. Then he glanced back at the silent blond kid. "Do you know any of the answers to this? I'm new."

"I noticed."

Kai smiled. "Could you help me?"

"This was not to be a group assignment."

He frowned. Well, at least he'd gotten the guy to talk. Kai turned back to his paper and tried to focus, but inside he was still way too excited about being in a completely new place. Even if Nya wasn't with him on this, he was still going to make his way to the top, he was sure of it. He tried to do something, at least scribble randomness on the paper, but he couldn't even focus enough to do that, and ended up just staring at his paper like some lunatic for the rest of the class. When the bell rang he stood right away, but quickly sat down again when he noticed he was the only one. "What's going on?" he whispered to the silent boy.

"Sensei has to check our papers before we leave."

"Why?"

"He wants to be certain we did the required amount of work for the day."

Wow, this guy talked funny. No wonder he kept his mouth shut. "But I didn't finish anything."

The other boy was silent again.

By the time the teacher, Sensei as everyone kept calling him, got around to Kai, the latter had written gibberish on his paper, just to pass off for a finished worksheet and get out of there. But as he began to stand again, Sensei told him, "This was not translated correctly. Try again."

"Again? But I didn't even—"

"Again," Sensei repeated, and moved on to the next desk.

"Better luck next time," the silent boy whispered as he picked up his things and left.

Kai growled under his breath. He only had a few more minutes to get to his next class, and he had already been late today and didn't plan to again. Leaving the paper on the desk, he gathered his things and slipped out the door while Sensei was distracted with another student.

He paused once he was far enough away from the classroom, and stood on his toes to see if he could catch a glimpse of his sister. Kai thought he might have seen her in the crowd and lifted his arm to wave to her when suddenly—

"Watch it, idiot. You nearly hit my face!" A boy in a football jersey shoved past him down the hall.

"Sorry," Kai muttered as the guy walked off. People in this place weren't friendly at all. He'd have to really prove himself if he wanted to even make friends, let alone climb to the top.

Suddenly another football guy was at his side. "Sorry about him," the other boy said. "He's a bit of a jerk, but don't tell him I said that."

Kai smiled. "Don't worry. I don't think I'll be talking to him anytime soon." He paused for a moment, thinking maybe the guy would walk away. But he didn't. "Name's Kai."

"Cole," said the other boy, returning the smile. "You're new around here, aren't you?"

"Yeah. And you're the first person to actually introduce yourself."

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Really? You must have been talking to some weird people."

Kai nodded. "Well this one guy was pretty weird. I got put next to him in Japanese, and—"

"That's where I recognized you from! You had it last period, right? Came in late?"

He groaned. "Don't remind me. That teacher is nuts."

Cole shrugged. "Maybe he is, maybe not. But more strict than anyone else in this school, so I'd recommend listening to him more often. You can sit next to me tomorrow, I'll help you out. But you were saying about the guy next to you?"

"I thought he couldn't talk at first. He wouldn't say a word. Just kept working on his paper. And when he did talk, he said things…weird. He just wasn't normal."

"Oh. You must have been sitting next to Zane."

"You know him?"

"I know who he is. I don't think anyone really _knows_ him. He hardly talks to anyone, and I'm positive his only friend is the guy sitting on his other side."

"The one with the nosebleed?"

Cole suddenly seemed hesitant. "Yeah."

"Do you know his name?" Kai asked, pretending not to notice.

He began to shake his head, then suddenly perked up again. "Oh wait, yeah I do. He's Jay. He's the exact opposite of Zane, I don't see how they're friends. Zane doesn't talk at all, Jay talks too much. It's a little confusing, but I'm just letting it be. I mean it's not like I'm friends with either of them."

Kai nodded. "Yeah. Well that makes more sense then. I mean why he didn't talk at all." He smiled. "Thanks."

Cole returned it again. "No problem. Where are you headed next? Don't want you to get lost again."

* * *

The snake looked perfect. Not colorful at all, but the line art was perfect. Lloyd stood back and admired his giant green drawing on the whiteboard of his uncle's classroom. It was intricate and huge, and took up the entire white space.

"Lloyd, I told you not to draw on the whiteboards," his uncle said suddenly, closing the door silently behind him.

The boy let out a sigh. "You scared me to death, uncle. Besides, it's just a snake."

"You keep wasting the ink in my markers."

"Aw, come on. You barely use them anyway."

"Lloyd."

He sighed again, but this time it wasn't so relieved. "Yes, uncle."

The old man nodded with a little smile and went to sit at his desk. "Don't you have a class to be in?"

"It's lunch break."

"Hm. Well then since you've got some free time on your hands, erase your drawing please."

"But Sensei—"

"Butts are for sitting. Erase it."

Lloyd gave a third sigh and picked up the eraser. "Can I at least take a picture?" His uncle didn't seem to hear him, but Lloyd figured that was a yes. He pulled out his phone to snap a picture as quick as he could, but just before he pressed the button, the bell rang. He took the picture, shoved the phone back in his pocket, and gave his uncle a little wave. "Well Sensei, it looks like I've got to be off to class now. See you after school!" And he was gone.

At once he ran into the group of boys he spent most of his time with. They were a small group, but they were well known throughout the school. Lloyd wasn't sure if they everyone knew them because he was in it and his uncle taught at the school, or if they were just that intimidating. Maybe both. He smiled when he found his two closest friends, Gene and Brad. But they didn't look so happy. "What's up with you two?" he asked when he reached them.

Brad frowned and crossed his arms. "Some of the football goons beat up two kids today."

"And?"

"Do you realize what that could do to our reputation? If popular football dolls go around beating down multiple people a day, let alone multiple during passing time, we're going down the toilet. People will think we've gone soft or something."

"And you're mad at me because…?"

Gene rolled his eyes and spoke up. "Didn't you do anything about it? You can get your uncle to stop them so we steal the game back, idiot."

Lloyd looked down at his feet. "Oh. Well…yeah. I guess you're right." He looked back up at them, but Gene was still glaring at him through his thick glasses. "You…want me to go tell him now?"

"No. It already happened, Lloyd. Just don't let it happen again."

"Yeah. Okay."


	2. Chapter 2: Protection with Purpose

Thunder crashed harshly outside, making the windows shake just slightly. As Nya stared out the window at the pouring rain and the occasional flashes of lightning, her mind began to wander away from the breakfast she was supposed to be eating. She was glad that she didn't end up having any classes with her brother. As sweet and caring as he was, once he was obsessed with something he would never give up on it, and it was driving her crazy. And after school yesterday he wouldn't shut up about how he was already friends with someone on the football team.

_Just please don't bug me during school_, she thought, taking a glance at him as he ate his cereal. _Leave me out of your plan._

"You should really come find me during lunch tomorrow, Nya," Kai was saying. "You could meet Cole. He's pretty cool."

Nya rolled her eyes silently, having given up on trying to talk to him about anything else.

"You're not listening, are you?"

"What?" Nya looked up with a little smile.

Kai glared at her. "Ha, ha," he said unenthusiastically. "You really haven't been listening at all, and I know you haven't."

"Don't blame me. You won't stop going on about it all. It's starting to get annoying."

He opened his mouth to respond, but Nya ignored him and stood to finish getting ready. When she was done, she turned on her music and put her headphones on so she wouldn't have to listen to Kai as she waited for the bus.

As the day slowly passed by, the thunder outside never ceased, and more than once a flash of lightning burst so brightly that the entire class was distracted for a whole ten minutes. Nya wasn't so easily entertained, and stayed at her desk every time. It was in the class just before lunch that she realized that she wasn't the only one to rush to the window with every strike of lightning. She had been doodling something on her paper absentmindedly, when she saw out of the corner of her eye, a boy in a blue hoodie just a few desks away. When she looked up at him, she saw him quickly turn the other direction. She smiled a little and returned to her drawing.

* * *

When Jay hesitantly turned back to look at the girl, he was glad to see that she was staring at her paper and working furiously again. She must have been new, he hadn't seen her before and she was definitely not someone he would forget in his life. He'd been working up his courage all class period just to move closer to her. In his mind he could plan out their whole conversation.

_Hi, I'm Jay. What's your name?_

Well, okay maybe he hadn't really gotten past that part. But that was only because he didn't know her name.

_I really like the color of your pencil. You must like blue, right? Blue's my favorite color._

Wow really? That was the best he could come up with? Favorite colors were definitely not something they could bond over.

_That pendant looks like a phoenix. Is that what it is? Where did you get it? Is there a backstory?_

No, too many questions at once. That was a bad habit of his, talking too much. Zane never seemed to mind, but everyone else in the world did. And everyone else in the world probably included this girl. But maybe it didn't. Maybe she wouldn't mind either. But the only way to find out was to get over there and just say something, anything. His mind was made up. But just as he started to get up, of course it would just be within his luck for the bell to ring, which was exactly what happened. Jay sighed as the people in the classroom were suddenly uninterested in the storm outside and more interested in making their way into the hall. It was pointless anyway. She was way out of his league.

The halls were a nightmare, as usual. Jay did his best to keep out of the way and unnoticed against the wall. If he could go a day without drawing attention that would make his life so much better. He was decided that even if he saw someone under cruel and unusual punishment on his way to lunch, he would just ignore them and keep going no matter what. No matter what. No matter what. No matter…no…matter… Crap. It was that girl again, and that same guy again. _No, Jay. Just ignore them. No matter what, remember?_ He groaned, unable to convince himself, and threw his backpack off his shoulders.

"Again?" he shouted, pushing himself between the bully and the girl.

"And what do you think you're going this time?" the older and taller and much stronger boy asked.

Jay took one step back. "The same thing I did yesterday. You can't keep hurting the same people!"

"Watch me."

* * *

Cole stood back. It was a complete rerun of what had happened yesterday, and it didn't pain him any less to just hear the fight happening. Though, when he thought about it, this wasn't really a fight. It was more like…one kid getting beat up by another kid. He winced every time he heard another hit and another muffled noise of pain, like the lightning and thunder still going on outside. He moved farther away and tried to ignore it, but by this point it was impossible.

"Will you stop already? He's had enough!" he said suddenly, doing what the other boy had done earlier. Maybe someone of the bully's own level would make him listen.

His friend stopped with his fist in the air. "C-Cole?" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "What are you doing? Get out of the way. Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Not anymore. You need to stop this." Cole turned away from him, toward the guy who'd been beaten up. He reached a hand out to help him up, but the bully pushed him out of the way. "Get out of here, Cole."

"I hate to start fights, but I will if I have to."

The surrounding crowd let out a unanimous "Oooooooooooh."

The bully stopped at the sound and turned again to face Cole with a dark scowl. "Was that a challenge?"

"Nope. Just saying."

"Challenge accepted." He swung his already clenched fist, but Cole moved quickly and dodged. The pattern continued, until people began jeering at him saying he was a coward and telling him to be a man and finish the fight he started. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but already his adversary was looking tired. Cole smiled. Now it was his turn. He stepped out of the way again, and in the same swift movement he swung around to hit the bully once in the jaw. He fell back against the wall and looked up a second later to look at Cole, who only stood there, hardly worn out at all. And the bell hadn't even rung yet.

The bully got up, but walked away with nothing more than a rough bump of the shoulder toward Cole. When he left, so did the rest of the team and the crowd, who had gathered for the fight. But Jay and the girl had stayed. They were both looking at him like he was an alien, but none of them said a word. Unable to think of anything else, Cole nodded to them and walked down the hall on his way to lunch.

* * *

"So if you were not hurt as badly as you were yesterday, why can you not speak?"

Jay rolled his eyes and scribbled on the piece of paper again, which was nearly full by now with his writing. _Somebody tagged my throat. I think it was the guy who came in to defend me, but I'm not sure. I wasn't exactly out of the way until the fight was half over. I think I recognized him from somewhere. Not sure on that either._

Zane looked up when he finished reading. "You said he was on the football team?"

Jay nodded and motioned toward his shirt.

"He was wearing a jersey?"

He nodded again.

"Some of the team are in the classes we share."

Jay rolled his eyes and snatched the paper back. _They're in practically every class. There's a bajillion of them._

"I suppose that is true," Zane said quietly. "Did you recognize the girl?"

Jay shook his head, but a moment later used the tiny open space on the paper to write, _Fight yesterday._

"But you don't know her?"

He shook his head again and continued eating. It was strange to Zane for his friend to be this silent, but because it was nothing natural, neither one of them were sure when Jay would get his voice back. And until then, Zane would have to endure the silence. But even when they met again in Japanese the strangeness of it all nearly frightened him. After all, the reason why they had become such quick friends was because they were two pieces of a puzzle. Zane was the silent one who usually answered whatever questions his friend might have, and Jay would fill the conversation with whatever came into his mind to say, which always happened to be quite a lot.

Today instead, the silence was filled by the new boy who again sat on Zane's other side. Kai, he remembered from the boy's various attempts at conversation the previous day. It was just the same as before, except partway through the class one of the members of the football team came up to them and began to talk to Kai.

"I thought you were going to sit by me today," said the boy with the jersey.

Before Kai could respond, Jay made a sudden gasping noise and Zane turned to face him. Jay was pointing frantically at the black-haired football player. "The fight?" Zane whispered. Jay nodded, and looked at the jock and began waving silently to him. But the guy didn't notice.

Zane tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around right away. "What?"

"My friend apparently wants to talk to you," Zane said, motioning toward the silent Jay.

Cole raised an eyebrow, then apparently recognized him as well. "Hey, you're the guy in the fight today."

Jay nodded and began to say something before remembering that his voice was gone.

* * *

"Can't talk, huh? Yeah I think I might have hit you. Sorry about that."

Kai stood and looked past Cole at the boy in the blue hoodie. He was silent too, but not in the way the boy in the white was. Cole had told him their names yesterday, but he couldn't remember. "Who are these guys again?" he said, a bit louder than he'd meant to.

"Oh…um…"

The boy in blue moved his arms around, obviously trying to get something across, but Kai had no idea what he was trying to say. "He is Jay," the boy in white said. "I am Zane."

"Oh, right. You guys rhyme," Kai said with a smile.

"We…what?"

"Sorry. Cole was telling me yesterday about you guys."

Zane looked up at Cole, as if he was confused.

"Wait. You don't actually know each other, do you?"

Zane shook his head.

Kai sat back down. "Oh."

But he looked back up when he heard an annoying tapping noise. Jay was shoving a piece of paper toward him. _Just because we don't know you guys doesn't mean things have to stay that way._ When Kai was done reading, he gave Jay a hesitant smile and let Cole read.

He smiled as well. "Okay then. Well, I'm Cole but obviously you guys know that. Football team but I've never played in a league game. I mean…not yet. I'll get back to you guys on that. Um…there's really not much else that interesting about me."

Jay motioned toward the paper and Cole returned it to him. _You saved me out there._

"Well, yeah but. That's not interesting." But when Jay gave him a look, Cole said quickly, "Okay maybe it's interesting. A little bit. I just don't like the idea of beating other people up just because."

"I think that's interesting," Kai said.

"Hm," Cole said with a little glance at him. "You next."

"Name's Kai. I'm completely new here, along with my sister." Jay began writing on the paper hurriedly again, but Kai kept talking anyway. "Um…not really sure. I guess I'm just pretty excited about being in a totally new place."

Jay slid the paper toward him. _You have a sister? Is she hot?_ Kai glared at him. And he thought Zane was weird. "Okay, I'm not answering that."

He grabbed the paper back. _Does she like blue?_

"Back off."

Jay hung his head and silently pointed to Zane, who only shrugged.

Cole looked at him. "Nothing to say."

Zane shook his head.

"You're acting like Jay," Kai said with a smile.

"He's not usually like this. Actually, there is hardly a moment when he is silent."

"But what about you?" Cole asked. "You're just quiet all the time."

Zane shrugged again. "I have nothing to talk about, so why would I speak?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Kai thought he saw Jay facepalm.

"Do you do anything other than…not talking?"

"My classwork."

"You're boring. How about you, Jay?" Cole said, taking the paper from Kai and giving it back to the silent one.

He was writing for a long time as Cole continued to try to get some answers out of Zane, to no avail. Kai watched him write erasing constantly, and eventually he flipped the paper over to start over again. Kai was glad Jay had lost his voice. When he was done, he shoved it toward Zane, who read it for the other two. "Normal life. Grew up with both parents, no siblings. He hates it when other people are getting bullied in school, which is why…" He paused, and didn't begin reading again until Jay gave him a nudge. "…why he puts himself in harm's way to protect others."

Cole sighed. "If I could, that's what I would be doing too. But I would be fighting back."

Jay moved his mouth, trying to speak, before grabbing the paper from Zane. You did today. Why not before?

"Because I can't. I could get in serious trouble."

Just then the intercom beeped and the class quieted down. "Would Cole Brookstone report to the office please?"

Cole sighed and got up. "Right on cue. See you guys tomorrow. Or not."

* * *

"Psst. Lloyd."

He looked around, hearing his name, but didn't see anyone around who would know him. The halls were full of strangers going to their lockers and hurrying out to the buses or to their cars to get home at the end of the day. Then he noticed a nearby dark classroom, with the door just open a crack, moving back and forth subtly. "Great. Just what I needed," he muttered, walking in that direction. "What do you guys want?" he said into the apparently empty classroom.

Gene and Brad came out from behind the door, both with their arms folded. "It happened again," Brad said quietly.

"What?"

"It happened again. You told us it wouldn't."

"You mean about the football guys?"

They glared at him, taking slow but menacing steps toward him. "Once is bad enough, twice is horrible. What do you think two days in a row does to us?" Gene asked.

"And what makes this inexcusable is that we saw you there."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You were there. At the fight. And you just watched. Didn't even think about telling someone else, huh?"

"Hey that guy who stood up to them had it under control!" Lloyd said, taking a few steps back when they got close.

"Oh, there was a third?" Gene looked at Brad and they shared a smile that Lloyd didn't like the looks of at all. "And I thought this was inexcusable as it was."

"Guys, I'm your friend," Lloyd said quickly, still backing away until he nearly fell backward onto a desk.

"A friend who betrayed us. Now you'll pay the price."


End file.
